[continued from previous message]   
      
   Over the centuries, the corruption and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church was   
   familiar to all and sundry. Most of the bloodshed in the Middle Ages is   
   traceable directly to religious causes, and not just a meager portion of the   
   blame belongs to the Church. [   
   343] Christianity had, by the end of the 4th Century, been elevated to the   
   position of official state religion of Rome. [344] And, with the increase in   
   prestige, there came a corresponding increase in religious intolerance on the   
   part of the Christian    
   clergy. Jews and Moslems both proved to be particular eyesores to the Catholic   
   Hierarchy – the Jews because of their steadfast refusal to accept Jesus as   
   their Messiah, and the Moslems because they openly declared that Jesus was not   
   the Messiah, nor was    
   he even crucified. [345] So began the Crusades and the Inquisition, the   
   Pogroms and the Witch hunts. Perhaps the lowest point was reached in the year   
   1212, when Pope Innocent III sent out 30,000 French children and 20,000 German   
   children to recapture the    
   Holy Land from the Moslems. Only one of the French children and about 200 of   
   the Germans survived to return home from this infamous Children's Crusade.   
      
   By the 16th Century, the Christian Church had lost much of whatever moral   
   authority it had held, due to the extreme corruption of a papacy which seemed   
   to seek nothing but greater wealth and greater power. The Crusades had come to   
   an end; but, seemingly    
   to replace this evil, the sale of indulgences [346] and the Inquisition were   
   coming into full force. Curiously, as of that time, the Pope had not yet been   
   declared infallible, although there had already been one major schism between   
   the Eastern and    
   Western Churches. [347] On 31 October 1517, in Wittenberg, E. Germany, Martin   
   Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door and, in one dramatic   
   gesture, inaugurated the Protestant Reformation which effectively removed any   
   remaining traces of    
   the historical Jesus – i.e. those traces that had survived the tampering of   
   the Catholic priests. [348]   
      
   Three personalities stand out in the early history of the Protestant   
   Reformation – Martin Luther, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. Quite   
   naturally, there were some differences of opinion among them as, for example,   
   over the question of whether or not    
   the predestination of human beings took place before or after the fall of Adam   
   and Eve, and whether or not that predestination was applicable only to those   
   who have been saved or also to those who have been damned (in Protestant   
   terminology, single    
   predestination versus double predestination). Nevertheless, whatever   
   controversies there were in those early days, they were of a relatively minor   
   nature for, on all major points Luther and Calvin and Zwingli spoke with one   
   voice. All three negated the    
   concept of free will, defining the human being as little more than a vehicle   
   for God or Satan. All three rejected the need for good works, justifying human   
   salvation on the basis of faith alone. All three upheld the need for a close   
   tie between Church    
   and State. [349] All three called for a return to scriptures as the sole   
   authority in matters of faith and practice. And none of the three made any   
   mention of the immense contradictions within the four common points of their   
   doctrine.   
      
   By rejecting the need for good works and the concept of free will, while   
   simultaneously presenting themselves as the elect of God, the Protestants most   
   effectively declared God responsible for any and all evil works which might be   
   done by themselves,    
   whereas Satan became the doer of countless good deeds by many non-Protestants   
   and even non-Christians. But, if God does evil and Satan does good, then which   
   is God and which is Satan, and what is the meaning of salvation? By insisting   
   on a return to    
   scriptures, the Protestants were in effect rejecting any efforts to tie divine   
   revelation to an earthly institution, e.g. the Roman Catholic Church. However,   
   by calling for a close tie between Church and State, the Protestants   
   immediately assumed the    
   existence of not just one, but two earthly institutions, i.e. the Protestant   
   Church and the State, to regulate religious affairs – thus making it even more   
   difficult, or rather impossible, to rely on scriptures as the sole authority   
   in matters of faith    
   and practice. In effect, the Protestant religion became inextricably bound to   
   the various monarchies that supported it; and, in those cases, the monarch was   
   simultaneously the head of state and head of church (as, for example, is still   
   officially–though    
   perhaps only nominally–the case in England, Norway and Sweden). Maybe the   
   papal election of the Catholic Church resulted in something less than an ideal   
   religious leader from time to time, but it is hard to imagine how the head of   
   Church becomes more    
   holy by descending in a lineal fashion as is the case with all monarchies.   
   Quite obviously, a mad monarch made a bad pontiff. In any event, the Church   
   organizations established by Protestantism were no less bureaucratic and no   
   less dogmatic than the    
   Catholic Church. Regarding corruption, the Protestants generally got around   
   this point by legalizing many of the practices which the Roman Catholic Church   
   had rejected, such as marriage of clergy, and lust for material    
   ggrandizement. Fin   
   lly, as for any return to the Gospels, a brief look at some of the basic   
   philosophy of Protestantism should demonstrate that such was surely the   
   farthest thing from anybody's mind at the time.   
      
   According to mainline Protestantism, each and every individual has her or his   
   own personal relationship with God, independent of any religious institution;   
   and ultimately it is faith in God or faith in Jesus, not charity or good   
   deeds, which redeems a    
   human being. As everyone has a personal relationship with the Supreme Being,   
   it is up to the individual to find out whether or not s/he has been saved.   
   Here, of course, the Protestant Church becomes important in helping the   
   individual to answer this    
   supposedly nagging question, but let us keep to the point, The question of   
   salvation may be resolved by certain signs of election, indications that God   
   has chosen one for entry into heaven. [350] These signs may take any form –   
   physical, mental or    
   spiritual. If a person behaves in a very righteous fashion, then it is clear   
   evidence that such a person is one of God's elect. [351] Even more important,   
   if God's Grace showers down on someone in the form of material riches, that   
   also is a sure    
   indication that s/he has been granted divine favor. Of course, it was not   
   deemed proper to be a spendthrift, but there was surely great merit to be had   
   in storing up a sizeable nest egg. With reasoning such as this, the three   
   patriarchs of Protestantism    
   conjured up the genie of the Protestant work ethic, and put paid to the   
   teachings of Jesus that extolled childlike simplicity, charity, collective   
   property, and “holy” poverty.   
      
   The Three Causes of Sin   
      
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